ENGLISH

Will and Political Legitimacy: A Critical Exposition of Social Contract Theory in Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Kant, and Hegel

By Patrick Riley

Book information

Publisher
Harvard University Press
Year
1982
ISBN
9780674435506, 9780674435490
DOI
10.4159/harvard.9780674435506
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
15 MB (15660915 bytes)
Edition
Reprint 2014
Pages
289\296
Library
degruyter.com
Time added
2023-08-22 11:02:46

Description

At the heart of representative government is the question: "What makes government and its agents legitimate authorities?" The notion of consent to a social contract between the citizen and his government is central to this problem. What are the functions of public authority? What are the people's rights in a self-governing and representative state? Patrick Riley presents a comprehensive historical analysis of the meaning of contract theory and a testing of the inherent validity of the ideas of consent and obligation. He uncovers the critical relationship between the act of willing and that of consenting in self-government and shows how "will" relates to political legitimacy. His is the first large-scale study of social contract theory from Hobbes to Rawls that gives "will" the central place it occupies in contractarian thinking.

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